Trump Names AIDS Researcher Redfield to Head CDC

But senior Democrat in Senate raises objection

WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration on Wednesday named Robert Redfield, MD, an AIDS researcher at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, to head the CDC.

"Dr. Redfield has dedicated his entire life to promoting public health and providing compassionate care to his patients, and we are proud to welcome him as director of the world's premier epidemiological agency," said Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, JD.

"Dr. Redfield's scientific and clinical background is peerless: As just one example, during his two-decade tenure at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, he made pioneering contributions to advance our understanding of HIV/AIDS. His more recent work running a treatment network in Baltimore for HIV and Hepatitis C patients also prepares him to hit the ground running on one of HHS and CDC's top priorities, combating the opioid epidemic."

Redfield, 66, replaces Brenda Fitzgerald, MD, who resigned in January after media outlets reported that she had invested in tobacco companies as well as healthcare-related stocks, posing several conflicts of interest. The position does not require Senate confirmation, and Redfield is expected to start his new job within a few days, according to media reports.

Redfield is co-founder -- along with Robert Gallo, MD, and William Blattner, MD -- of the university's Institute of Human Virology, where he is currently the associate director, and chief of the university's infectious diseases division.

According to his bio, Redfield's primary research interest is "the development of novel biological approaches to the treatment of chronic viral pathogens with a particular focus of targeting host cell pathways for their therapeutic potential. Several novel areas under active translation investigation include: targeting key biochemical pathways of nucleotide biosynthesis to enhance activity of specific antiretroviral medication; targeting cell activation with specific cell cycles as a primary treatment target; use of G1 cell cycle agents to down regulate expression of key HIV host cell receptors; use of G1 cell cycles to enhance antiviral activity of HIV entry inhibitors; and the use of HIV specific proteins as therapeutic vaccines."

He received his undergraduate and MD degrees from Georgetown University, and then had an internship and internal medicine residency at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Redfield also did fellowships in infectious diseases and tropical medicine at Walter Reed.

Redfield's appointment is not without controversy, particularly in the area of his work on HIV/AIDS. Early on during the epidemic, he proposed mandatory testing, an idea criticized by AIDS activists, according to The New York Times.

In addition, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) panned Redfield's appointment in a letter to President Trump on Monday, when news reports indicated he would likely be named. She argued that Redfield lacked public health expertise and flirted with research misconduct in pushing the gp-160 AIDS vaccine that ultimately failed.

"In early 1993, the Army launched an investigation into Dr. Redfield's work after he misrepresented data on gp-160's effectiveness at an international conference," Murray wrote. "The Army ultimately found no evidence of scientific misconduct, but it did find that Redfield's analysis of the vaccine trial data was faulty and criticized him for prematurely presenting the information."

Murray also wrote that Redfield "defended the Army's practice of segregating HIV-positive members of its ranks" into what soldiers called the "HIV hotel" and "the leper colony," according to a 1989 news report. "Dr. Redfield defended the extreme policy, stating, 'The reason we have done what we have done is that we think it's good medicine. And it's medicine that might work in the civilian sector as well.' After a journalist exposed the segregation, the Department of Defense Inspector General found that practice violated the Army regulations."

"This pattern of ethically and morally questionable behavior leads me to seriously question whether Dr. Redfield is qualified to be the federal government's chief advocate and spokesperson for public health," Murray concluded. "His positions on mandatory testing and segregation of HIV-positive soldiers were inconsistent with what public health officials, including the CDC, recommended at the time, and he has taken no action to distance himself from those positions ... I hope you will reconsider Dr. Redfield as a candidate for CDC director and instead seek a candidate whose experience and positions lend credibility to the nation's critical public health work."

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